Complēt™ Long Fiber Reinforced Structural Thermoplastics
Metal Replacement Solution
Complēt™ long fiber reinforced thermoplastics are structural injection molding composites with metal replacement performance. This product line encompasses a large net of specialty solutions that are tailored to solve light weighting initiatives for a variety of industries. Fiber reinforcements include long glass fiber, long carbon fiber and long hybrid (glass + carbon) fiber. Resin technologies utilized in these formulations include a breadth of options including a variety of polyamides, rigid thermoplastic polyurethanes and specialty resin solutions (such as PES, PEI, PEEK).
These products showcase or continually advancing technologies and formulation capabilities, continually expanding new solutions into new markets eager for metal replacement alternatives. This includes our additional product offerings of Complēt PKE Polyketone Formulations, Complēt Moisture Resistant Nylons and Complēt REC Recycled Content grades.
With appropriate material selection and part design optimization, long carbon fiber materials can reduce the weight of components up to 40% compared to aluminum. Additional benefits include high strength and stiffness performance, creep resistance, fatigue endurance, elevated and low temperature performance, dimensional stability, and corrosion and chemical resistance.
Customized, single-pellet solutions are highly encouraged – utilize our formulation expertise to make your production process as efficient as possible. Color matching, UV performance enhancements and lubrication additives are just a few of the many performance additive solutions that we offer.
Lightweighting
Benefits
- Improved strength and toughness vs. short fiber
- High strength-to-weight ratio
- Retains performance across low and elevated temperatures
- Load carrying creep and fatigue resistance
- Excellent dimensional stability
- Very good corrosion and chemical resistance
- Can be processed on standard injection molding machines
Properties and Comparisons
Complēt long fiber pellets are cut to a 12mm chop length, with unidirectional fiber reinforcement throughout the pellet (12mm pellet = 12mm fiber length). See how the fiber length directly correlates to increased stiffness, strength and impact performance. Pellet lengths can be tailored between 6mm and 15mm, but the typical length is 12.
Complet thermoplastic solutions have a high strength-to-weight ratio, allowing them to go head-to-head with traditional metal performance.
Complēt long fiber solutions have a significant jump in mechanical properties when compared to an unreinforced resin or a short fiber reinforced resin – most notably in toughness.
| Long Fiber Technologies | Applications | Description/Product Features |
|---|---|---|
| Complēt™ LGF | Transportation underhood and powertrain, off-road recreational vehicles, automotive aftermarket parts, portable tools and equipment, and healthcare | Long glass fiber reinforced engineering resins with enhanced mechanical properties that obtain metal-like structural capabilities. Provides high impact and fatigue resistance |
| Complēt™ LCF | Sports and recreation gear, aerospace interiors, robotics, and industrial equipment | Higher performance long carbon fiber reinforced thermoplastics for weight sensitive applications or more load-carrying capability |
| Complēt™ Hybrid | Sports and recreation gear or automotive underhood and powertrain | Synergistically combines long carbon and long glass fiber together in a unified material to optimize performance and cost |
| Complēt™ MT | Sports and recreation gear or industrial equipment | Maximum toughness, long fiber reinforced nylon 6 or 66 formulated for extra impact and fatigue resistance for demanding applications |
| Complēt™ Moisture Resistant | Automotive, powersports, automotive aftermarket parts and consumer applications | Long fiber reinforced nylon 6 or 66 composites providing consistent performance in moisture-rich environments. Long glass fiber formulations offer surface appearance free of visible fiber |
| Complēt™ REC | Sports & recreation gear, office furnishings, or automotive | Post-consumer recycled (PCR) and post-industrial recycled (PIR) resins up-engineered with long fiber reinforcement. Recycled resin content customizable to meet performance and sustainability requirements |
| Complēt™ PKE | Pipes, tubing, fluid management, electrical connectors, battery components, under-the-hood fuel/chemical contact components, non-structural interior components, oil and gas components | Long glass fiber reinforced polyketone that delivers excellent chemical resistance, low moisture uptake, and dimensional stability similar to nylon (PA6 and PA66). They also offer over 2x higher impact properties than short fiber reinforced solutions, while maintaining impact properties in cold and demanding environments |